oh, my bees...

[cos]

I've been reading about the bee demise for a few months, and it's been worrying, but abstract.

Yesterday, I went with dreams_of_wings and aatish2 to Heritage Gardens (formerly Heritage Plantation of Sandwich) to see the rhododendrons and azaleas at peak bloom - though it seems peak is coming a bit late this year and will likely be this weekend or early next week. We got there at 3:40pm and left at 5:10pm, so we spent about an hour and a half walking around. It was a warm sunny day, and beautiful.

I saw one bee.

It's been a few years since I last went, but I've gone there during peak bloom at least three times before, possibly more. One of my clearest recurring memories of those visits has been the buzzing of the bees near the entrance.

[ photos from yesterday - I'll upload more soon ]

Comments

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Did you see a difference in flower quantity or quality that you could link to the bee shortage?
Do you think the lateness of peak might be related?
(I guess I don't even know for sure that those flowers are primarily pollinated by bees, but since you mention them hav ing been regular visitors in the past, I'm inferring it.)

My father-in-law keeps bees for honey, and he has been lucky so far, but hive collapse has moved as far as Southern Wisconsin, so it's on our radar, too...

[cos]

Since I've gone there at most once a season (well, maybe I went twice one year), I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between overall flower quantity & quality during the season, and variations from day to day - am I seeing something different because this year is different from last year, or because this day is different from another day?

Bumblebees have been plentiful every other time I've been there, though. I don't think people keep bumblebees, so I assume they're wild.

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

Did you see a difference in flower quantity or quality that you could link to the bee shortage?

Pollination is not what creates flowers. Other way around.

Do you think the lateness of peak might be related?

Actually, I think of azalea peak for this climate as happening in June. I could be misremembering but I think that's when I've always seen the good stuff in the Arnold Arboretum.

[cos]

Heritage's peak is usually on Memorial Day weekend, but it varies by up to a week some years. Some of the more unusually colored Dexter breeds peak about a week off from the rest, IIRC.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Heh, good point. I stand corrected :).
I guess next year's crop would be the way to tell; except aren't azaleas and rhododendrons perennials anyway? Hmm... how do you gauge whether bee death matters to these plants, in that case? Is it just about whether they drop seeds, or what?

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

You don't tell from the plant itself; you tell from fruit production (fruit in the sense of fertilized egg/seed), which is a lot easier to gauge when you're looking at an apple orchard than at a bunch of rhododendrons. Insect pollinations is only one type of pollination, but it's particularly important for organisms that produce flowers.

Not to downplay the possibility that hive death is a big deal, but it should be noted that not so very long ago, orchards in North America were mostly pollinated by wild insects. Then the wild bee population died back substantially, and so some orchardists started keeping hives. I have no idea if "hive death" is related to the wild bee die-back or not, but it's worth noting that bee death in North America is not a new thing.

[cos]

There have always been hive deaths, what's special about this year is how many. From what I read, it is hitting both captive and wild hives.

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of that; I'm just pointing out that the wild bee population went through a decline at least as drastic in the past, leading to the current bee-keeping practices.